The DeSmet leader. (DeSmet, Kingsbury Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-08-06
WRITING SPELLING.

be addressed to the Manager.
WRITING SPELLING.
Not long ago heard a teacher say. ~
do not have spelling IN my school, the
pupils have been spelled to DEATH BY
this, she meant she had no spelling. In
the common acceptation of the term;
but she had great deal of transposing
of print to script, many kinds OF writ
ten language lessons, and requires
geography and other lessons to be
studied by writing them.
Hers is not the only school that has
been spelled to death. Some children.
have learned to describe the parts Of
the word pictures before they are fa--
miliar with the picture, for oral spelling
is simply describing what the word,
looks like. They can spell large num-
ber OF words, but when asked to write
them, make bad work Of 1t. asked,
some pupils who read from the Second.
Third and Fourth reades to write this
sentence: "Do you know who were
theres" Out Of ten papers ! found but
one on which 1t was correctly written.
Then some children have way OF
spelling off their reading -eyen the
monosyllables which they should know
at sight are spelled very carefully be-
fore they are pronounced, which lakes
so much attention that the thought ex-
pressed by the words is lost. This is a
habit which is very hard to break up.
think IL they were taught to write the
words as fast as they learn them by
sight, and when they know a few, to
put them in sentences, which should
always be begun with a capital and
ended with the proper punctuation
mark, they would then get the forms Of
the words in their minds SO that they
would recognize them whenever they
might see them. This way OF studying
spelling takes the whole attention. I,,l-
pills cannot write spelling on their
states and have their eyes and thoughts
on something else, as they too often do
when repeating the letters over and
over again, and in many cases repeat
ing them incorrectly. When the spell
ing is learned by writing 1t number
times, the teacher can see whether it
has been studied correctly or not; IL
any words have been incorrectly learned
ahe can insist upon its being written
enough times to remove the wrong
from the mind.
Frequently we see pupils studying on
exercises In the sppller In which quar-
ter Of the words are meaningless to
their minds. III, instead Of this, they
were required to find out from the die
tionary the meaning Of few OF them,
and to be able to put them In correct
sentences it would be OF far greater
benefit to them.
Children should be required to know
the words which they come across I'm,
their text books, When they are old.
enough to study subjects from q text
book, they are old enough to learn 10,
spell properly the words used In them.
My way OF hearing spelling has
worked well In my case, ana perhaps
may be a help to some one else; so
will give it here. Sometimes I have,
six spelling classes and hear them all
in fifteen minutes. letter the classes
and pronounce the word or sentence
for each class but once. While 'sAr'
class is writing its word or sentence, r
can give five others out. This exercise
/ have the last thing In the morning, so
that I can correct the states at noon.
Each pupil has blank book in which
to keep the words he fails. AT the end;
Of each lesson ha is required to write
the words he misspelled the preceding
one. The words failed in any other,
written exercise are placed In this book
to be recited at the next spelling les
son. A. TEACHER.